GOOOOOOOAAAAALLLLLLLLL

Last night I had my first soccer experience.  I was a little iffy on the idea.  But I LOVE sporting events, and since I’d never been to a game ever.  Not even in high school.  Soccer is a pretty big deal where I’m from, but I always had other important things to follow back then.

I asked Charlet what colors to wear….Red or black.  I’m not a big wearing red fan.  But that’s for a different post entirely……

I donned a black shirt and out we went for the half hour subway ride to World Cup Stadium.  Get on the escalator and you can hear the fans.   I get goosebumps.  I’m telling you I love sporting events!! The noise and excitement.  The rush you get when your team scores. LOVE IT!

Tickets are only 10,000 won, which is about $10.  And you get this piece of plastic you fold into a fan so you make as much obnoxious noise as possible.  Heck yes!  We had great seats too. Or I thought so at least. Fairly close to the field and close to the “ultras”.  The mega fans.  They have huge flags and vuvuzelas.  I need one of those!

Then Charlet took us newbies to get the obligatory hot dogge. If a hot dog and corn dog had a baby this would be it.

Then we walk into the stadium…..people are going crazy.  I hear “FC SEOUL FC SEOUL FC SEOUL” and something else in Korean I don’t understand.  I learn later that they are chanting “Seoul is coming, Seoul is coming”.  I see the guys with the mega flags and know I’ve found a new favorite past time.

I guess the game was a slow one. But honestly I figured a soccer game would be pretty slow.  I mean it’s soccer, what’s so exciting about that?  Then they started to shot the ball more and miss.  People are going nuts.  They have these guys that keep the crowd going. And every time our team got close to scoring these guys would start another chant.

We finally scored in the last minute or so.  That is what sealed the deal for me.  The fans erupted.  The people I was with jump into each others arms.  Hugging all round.

I can’t wait for my next football game.

With love, from Korea.